Stefan Collini asks, "Does ‘marketisation’ threaten to destroy what we most value about education?"

In recent decades, there has been an immense surge in the numbers of universities and students. This, together with new technology, globalization and governmental imposed procedures is forcing universities to behave more like business enterprises in a marketplace.

In Speaking of Universities, academic and English literary critic Stefan Collini analyses these changes and challenges the assumptions of policy-makers and commentators. He asks: does ‘marketisation’ threaten to destroy what we most value about education; does this new era of ‘accountability’ distort what it purports to measure; and who does the modern university belong to?